St. Paul skyway link over Fifth Street open again

Folks moved over the skyway over East Fifth Street between Cedar and Minnesota streets at 7:45 a.m. The downtown St. Paul section reopened Wednesday morning Nov. 2, 2011. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

An early skyway walker (7:05 a.m.) heads east over East Fifth Street on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. (Pioneer Press: John Doman)

When the Golden Gate Bridge opened May 27, 1937, the bridge's chief engineer recited a poem he had written called "The Mighty Task is Done."

On Wednesday, St. Paul officials announced that a more modest task is done. The downtown skyway over Fifth Street is open again.

The link between the Alliance Bank Center and the St. Paul Athletic Club was shut down April 1 and rebuilt over the spring, summer and fall when the old Bremer Bank building at Fifth and Cedar streets was torn down to make way for a Central Corridor light-rail station.

The new skyway was actually reopened Tuesday. But officials scheduled the official ribbon-cutting grand opening for early Wednesday.

An estimated 18,000 people were waiting at 6 a.m. to cross the Golden Gate Bridge on its first day, including those vying to be the first to run, roller skate, tap dance, ride a unicycle or stilt walk across the span.

A 5:40 a.m. Wednesday at skyway 24, there was Charles Cervantes and a handful of city and downtown officials.

"Are they giving bags away?" Cervantes asked about a table full of goodie bags that contained a chocolate bar, pedometer, keychain, pencil and newspaper.

Not yet, he was told, but he did get a high-five from Buzz, the Minnesota Swarm mascot.

6:23 a.m.: A trickle of bemused early-bird workers walked past. "Good morning! Enjoy the new skyway. Go for it," said Nancy Homans, policy director at the St. Paul mayor's office.

6:28 a.m.

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: The first goodie bag was handed over.

6:30 a.m.: Homans put on an orange paper party hat in the shape of a Central Corridor traffic construction cone. She's the only one to do that. "I'm not proud," she said.

6:50 a.m.: Dennis Slattengren walked by. The downtown resident was one of the first people to go through the new skyway about 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.

"They just had a little tape up there to keep people out. They said it was going to open in another 10 minutes. So I stood around," Slattengren said.

He certainly was the first person to go through the new skyway barefoot.

"It feels good; it's safe and it's clean," he said of his unshod strolls. "This is my morning ritual to get my coffee and walk through the skyway from one end to the other."

6:55 a.m.: The coffee arrived, followed by breakfast sandwiches. A small crowd started to form.

7:34 a.m.: Buzz and Nordy started holding a red ribbon across the skyway. Downtown workers had to duck under to get past.

7:40 a.m.: Politicians made brief remarks as spectators inhaled that new skyway smell. "Nothing celebrates milestones better than bridges," said St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. "It is our lifeline for the city hall to get to the food court."

7:41 a.m.: The ribbon was cut with jumbo scissors wielded by Shawn Wiski. She's the property manager of the Alliance Bank Center building. The honor fell to her probably because about three dozen retailers and restaurants in her building were most hurt by the skyway's closure.

"Oh, yes, the businesses have been down all summer. So they're very ecstatic to have this reopen," she said.

Early reviews from skyway pedestrians were good, too.

"I'm really amazed. They said they'd have it done by November 1, and by golly they did it," said downtown resident Jay Severance as he walked through the skyway late Tuesday afternoon.